O's game blog: John Means looks for win No. 5

The Orioles take the field today looking for a season-high four-game winning streak when they play Cleveland in the second of a three-game series.

The Orioles have twice won three in a row this season. They opened the year with a three-game sweep at Boston. And they took three in a row April 29-May 1, winning the first game versus the Yankees and the last two against Oakland.

The Orioles beat Cleveland 3-1 Friday night as Keegan Akin threw five scoreless and their pitchers allowed eight hits with one walk and 10 strikeouts. O's pitching has permitted three runs or fewer five times in the last six games, giving up 17 runs in that stretch. The team ERA is 2.82 the past six games.

O's starting pitchers have an ERA of 1.88 over the past five games, allowing five earned runs over 24 innings with eight walks and 25 strikeouts. Dating to last Sunday and going forward, O's starters have given up one, one, two, one and zero runs.

Akin lowered his ERA to 3.60 last night, allowing three singles in five innings on 86 pitches. In eight career major league starts, Akin has a 3.09 ERA.

The Orioles (20-37) have outscored their opponents 16-8 during the three consecutive wins, which followed a run in which they lost 14 in a row and 18 of 19 games. Friday night they ended an eight-game losing streak in series-opening games, posting such a win for the first time since May 3 at Seattle. They are 7-12 in series-opening games and 2-7 in home games to begin a series.

Lefty John Means (4-1, 2.05 ERA) takes the mound today in a pitching matchup against Cleveland right-hander Aaron Civale (7-2, 3.28 ERA), which is a matchup of two of the top 10 ERA leaders in the American League.

Means ranks second in the AL in ERA, behind only Lance Lynn of the White Sox at 1.23, and Civale ranks ninth. Means ranks first in the AL in WHIP (0.796) and Civale is 10th (1.068). Civale ranks fifth in innings (74) and Means is seventh (70 1/3). Means ranks third in opponent batting average (.173) and Civale is 15th (.228).

In his first eight starts of the year, Means went 4-0 with a 1.21 ERA, gave up five homers and had an OPS against of .438. In his past three starts, he is 0-1 with a 4.42 ERA, allowing six homers and with a .770 OPS against. Means took his first loss last Saturday in the second game of the doubleheader at Chicago, when he gave up three runs in five innings. It was just the third time this year he has allowed three runs or more in a start, which has happened twice in his past three outings.

As mentioned, Means is already at 70 1/3 innings 35 percent of the way through the year. He pitched 43 2/3 innings last season and threw 155 during 2019.

The Orioles are 5-6 in Means 11 starts. In two career starts against Cleveland he is 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA and 1.000 WHIP.

Civale has allowed two earned runs or fewer in six of his 11 starts and has six quality starts for the year. In his last game versus Toronto he gave up 10 hits and four runs over six innings. The Indians are 8-3 in his outings.

The O's Ryan Mountcastle hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the last of the seventh on Friday. It was his second home run in as many games, the first time in his career homering in back-to-back games, and he has now homered in three of his last four games. Mountcastle has recorded an extra-base hit in four straight games and in six of his last 10 games overall, hitting .314/.351/.771 (11-for-35) with two doubles, four home runs, seven runs scored, and 11 RBIs.

Mountcastle ranks among rookie league leaders in extra-base hits (3rd, 18) home runs (T-3rd, 7), RBIs (T-3rd, 27), doubles (4th, 10), and hits (7th, 45).